Office Romance Is Not Allowed!
by shoelacegrl
Summary: The CSI's find amusement meddling in Greg's love life.
1. Meet the People

***Author's Note: Hey everyone! This is my first fanfiction, and it's nowhere near done yet, but please review so far! And don't you just love Greggy? Oh yeah, and out of curiosity, Sara's a vegetarian, right? Has it ever been specified if she's a vegan or a lacto-ovo? thanks!*** ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------  
  
She stood in front of the full-length mirror, critiquing the fifth outfit of the night. "It's ridiculous!" She thought in despair. "Nothing fits; and I've already worn the few items that do!" Twirling around to check out her butt in the low-rider black flares, Mandy sighed. "This'll have to do." She played with the collar on the pale orange blouse, which complimented her tan complexion nicely.  
  
"It would look really hot if only I lost 20 pounds. Of course, easier said than done." She spoke aloud, laughing sarcastically. Mandy wistfully walked over to the window. Her teeny apartment actually had a great view. Well, great considering it only faced the window of yet another apartment. This apartment however, housed two cute guys living together (no, not like that, silly!). Luckily for Mandy, the guys were careless enough to leave the blinds drawn most of the time, and she had an unobstructed view right into their living room. The two guys, ironically, worked at the same forensics lab as Mandy. While she was just a lowly receptionist, the tall dark and handsome one was Nick Stokes, a CSI. He was incredibly dedicated to his job, and as a side note, incredibly nice to look at without a shirt. The spiky-haired blonde was Mandy's favorite. Greg, a lab technician, was so cute and quirky that Mandy could barely concentrate on her boring job. For weeks she had watched Greg, for the few hours their shifts overlapped, hunched determinedly over his microscope. She only wished that she would work up the confidence to talk to him. Or, for that matter, that she would look good enough for him to approach her. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------  
  
Greg Sanders fell back on the uncomfortably familiar futon, a large mocha in hand. His roommate, the famous Nick Stokes, had yet again banished him to the living room. Nick was tall, dark, and handsome, and was bringing home girls way too often, shoving Greg out to the futon. That's what had happened tonight, leaving Greg with only his chocolatey-coffee goodness for comfort. "Of course, comfort does come in other forms," Greg thought mischievously as he peeked out the window. One of the labs few receptionists, Mandy Johnson, was across the street, unconsciously parading around in her own living room. Mandy was blonde hair blue eyed, and a little self-conscious, which Greg found incredibly cute. He didn't really have the nerve to approach her at the lab, but his favorite bedtime ritual was to watch her pick out her outfit for the next day. The sound of the opening door jolted Greg out of his thoughts. Nick strode in, heading for the refrigerator. "Are you still watching that chick, Greg?" Nick asked as he grabbed two beers. "She's gonna see you one of these days! Greg just grinned and nodded. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------  
  
The next day at work for Mandy was a slow one - mostly filled with answering phone calls, and well, staring at Greg. Mandy had non-commitedly set up a mirror cleverly designed as a picture frame so that she could monitor Greg without turning around. He seemed to be in a pretty good mood today, judging by the loud Black Flag blaring from his section of the lab. The music was horrible, but that was typical Greg for you. Mandy was blandly surfing the net when she heard someone approach her desk. Expecting to see a UPS man needing a signature, she was a little shocked to see Greg's spiky hair staring back at her. "I was just wondering miss," he snuck a peek at he name plaque, ".Johnson, if you would be kind enough to let me borrow your calculator. It's for a very important case," he added with a pleading grin. Mandy felt pretty flirtatious, so she matched his bravado. "Well Mr. Sanders. It seems to me that if they provide you with all of that expensive equipment, that there surely is a calculator somewhere in that lab." Greg looked sheepish. "Well, I do have this calculator," he said, pulling a scientific looking model out of the deep pockets of his lab coat. "But if just ran out of batteries, and besides, I like yours better!" He reached over and hit the button on her simple lime green calculator that was mainly for looks and lo and behold, the lid flipped back and the calculator propped itself up on Mandy's desk. "Fine." Mandy answered in mock huffiness. "I suppose you can take it. But it better be back on this desk tomorrow morning." Greg was just taking the calculator when the two heard a voice behind them. It was Gil Grissom; the night shift supervisor, coming in search of Greg. "Aren't you supposed to be processing my lab results Greg?" Grissom asked in a stern voice. "Almost done sir!" Greg answered, and scampered back to the lab. Grissom turned to Mandy. "And to you - don't flirt with that boy. He's bad news!" He strode after Greg, looking to do some more nagging. Mandy blushed. Was it that obvious that she and Greg were flirting? And was Grissom serious? He didn't seem like one to joke. OH well. Her thoughts turned back to Greg. He had flirted with her! Or, at least, she thought he was flirting. Maybe he just innocently liked her calculator. Greg was a little weird. Still, she suddenly felt very giddy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------  
  
After being lectured by Grissom, it was another couple hours before Greg allowed himself to wander off task. After catching a glimpse of Nick headed to the break room, Greg decided to grab a cup of coffee for himself. As he cautiously entered the tiny room, still keeping an eye out for Grissom, Greg noticed Catherine and Sara standing outside, surely discussing their latest case. They both gave him a knowing smile as he walked by. "Hey Greggy, what's up?" Nick asked as Greg approached. "Have you finished my results yet?" Greg gave him a reproachful look. "Are you kidding? I've spent the whole time on Grissom's stuff."  
Instead of Nick's usual huffy reaction, he smirked at Greg. "I know. If Grissom's yelling at you, then he's off our backs and we all get to watch," Nick said referring to all off the CSIs. "Looks like someone has a crush!"  
"Who me? On Grissom? That's just gross, dude!" Nick gave him a weird look. "Of course not. I was talking about the way that receptionist blushed when you were talking to her today."  
"Well, what can I say? I am quite the lady's man!" Greg retorted as Nick scoffed. "SO, did we have an audience the entire time? Some professionals you are!" Greg grabbed his coffee and headed back to the lab.  
Nick smiled to himself. He knew Greg had liked Mandy ever since he first saw her in her apartment. And from the likes of things, Mandy liked him too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------  
  
Over the next few days, Greg and Mandy's budding romance turned the CSI's into a classroom full of fifth graders. Everyone secretly thought Greg needed a woman, and Mandy and Greg made an adorable couple. However, they were both too shy to make a move.  
Nick and Warrick had a bet going on which of them would ask the other out first.  
"No man, I think Greg is gonna make his move first. You should watch him - he looks into her apartment every chance he gets!"  
"Well we all know Greggo's a bit of a perv, but c'mon - he's a bit of a loser with the ladies, too. I have my bets on the girl" Warrick replied.  
Nick laughed. "Well I guess we'll just have to wait and see," he said confidently. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------  
  
Catherine and Sara were stuck on their homicide case, and only one person could help them breakthrough: Greg.  
"Have you gotten the results back on the blood spatter yet, Sanders?" Sara whined?  
"Chill out ladies! It's coming, it's coming," Greg scolded. "Don't you have anything better to do than annoy me all day?"  
"NO!" Catherine and Sara shouted in unison.  
"Well okay then," Greg said, taken aback. "Relax. It should print out any second."  
That seemed to calm them a bit, but Catherine was still nervously checking her watch. Greg turned back to his computer, but, as he saw the lime green calculator still among the equipment, he got an idea.  
"Hey." he said slowly, "can I take you ladies out to dinner after the shift ends tonight?"  
The two women looked at each other. Catherine raised one eyebrow.  
"Noo, I'm not trying to score with you!" Greg said impatiently. I just need your womanly advice."  
They still looked doubtful, but luckily Greg saw the computer spit out a sheet. He quickly grabbed it.  
"I'll trade you the results for your help," he teased, waving the paper above his head.  
"Fine." Sara said, rolling her eyes as she grabbed the paper out from Greg's grasp.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- 


	2. Around the Lab

As soon as Grissom finally let them go, Catherine, Sara, and Greg met up together outside the building. Warrick gave Greg and odd look as he was leaving with the two ladies, but otherwise no one saw them making plans together. Unfortunately, it was late, and Denny's was closest thing to real food still open. Well, at least from Greg's point of view. Sara secretly smirked at his horrible taste.  
The three of them made polite conversation until the food came: a veggie omelet for Sara, just coffee and a bagel for Catherine, and the kid's grilled cheese for Greg (complete with dino fries!). The two ladies were dying to know what was so important to Greg - important enough for him to bring then here. Of course neither was going to give him the satisfaction of asking. He was enjoying the suspense too much.  
Finally, after biting off the head of a ketchup soaked stegosaurus, Greg started to talk.  
"Okay guys," he said. "Let's get down to business. Do you know that one receptionist, her name is Amanda?" They both nodded, and Greg thought he detected a faint smile on Catherine's face. However, he couldn't be stopped now. He was on a roll. "Anyway." he said, kind of embarrassed, "I want to ask her out, but I can't do it to her face. I know where she lives, though, and I was thinking."  
Catherine cut him off. "Oh you want to do something romantic! Our little Greggo is all grown up!" Sara cracked up, and Greg turned bright red "Well I thought girl's were supposed to like that stuff," he defended himself.  
"Don't worry Greg," Sara said reassuringly, after she had calmed herself down. "We're just teasing you. But really, what do you need our help for?"  
"He needs an idea," Catherine said, her bossy side taking over, "And I've got one."  
Sara and Greg leaned in anxiously.  
"OK. Here's the plan."  
  
Mandy was in a bad mood. A week ago se was excited to come to work every day, just for the prospect of interaction with Greg. SO far this week, however, it seemed that if she even glanced in Greg's direction he would look embarrassed and ignore her. There was none of his usual pesky flirting."  
"Oh well," she said to herself. "I guess I'll actually have to focus on my job" she thought bitterly.  
As she was half-heartedly going through her email, Sara Sidle strodein through the large double door entrance to the lab. She stopped at Mandy's desk.  
"Hey - Amanda, right? Sara asked.  
"Mandy's fine" she answered.  
"Have you seen Grissom?" Sara asked. "I'm late and I really don't want to deal with him yelling at me!"  
Mandy smiled "Yeah, I can imagine. Grissom doesn't tolerate tardiness. Anyway I haven't seen him anytime recently."  
"Ooh maybe that's a good sign" Sara thought aloud, hopefully. "Thanks mandy!" She hurried off down the hall.  
Mandy turned back toward her computer. Sara seemed pretty cool, and it was always nice to have some decent human interaction on the job. Maybe she would try to talk to her again. 


End file.
